Joblessness among post-Sept. 11 vets remains high

The unemployment rate among military veterans who served after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks remains stubbornly higher than that of the general population, especially for the youngest men to leave the service, according to a congressional report released Tuesday.

The Memorial Day-themed report cites new federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data and suggests that one major reason for the high unemployment is that post-9/11 veterans were more likely to be employed in industries that were hit hardest by the recession.

“The skills and work experience those veterans receive while on active duty make them better matched to civilian employment in certain private-sector industries,” said the report, written by the staff of the ranking Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey. “However, this distribution of employment left recent veterans vulnerable to the massive job losses of the Great Recession.”